Ppl Share News

CORRECT: PPL Unveils Plans To Sell Shares, Equity Units

("PPL Unveils Plans To Sell Shares, Equity Units >PPL," at 6:42 a.m., misstated the debt assumption in the second paragraph. The correct version follows: ) DOW JONES NEWSWIRES PPL Corp. (PPL) unveiled plans to offer at least 80 million shares and $750 million of equity units to raise funds to repay part of a EUR3.6 billion ($5.9 billion) bridge loan. The operator of utilities and a wholesale power supply and trading business took the bridge loan to help pay for its recent acquisition of E.ON AG's (EOAN.XE, EONGY) U.K. electricity power distribution business for GPB3.6 billion plus the assumption of GBP500 million of debt. PPL said its plans to offer 15 million equity units priced at $50 each, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. The equity units will consist of a contract to purchase shares and a 5% interest in $1,000 principal amount of junior subordinated notes that mature in 2019. The company didn't provide the pricing for the stock sale. The two offers aren't contingent on each other. The company had about 483.4 million shares outstanding as of Dec. 31 and a recent market capitalization of about $12.49 billion. PPL in February reported that its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled on higher electricity prices in its supply segment, but revenue fell short of estimates. The company has consistently improved results over the past year on increased demand, though low natural gas prices have been weighing down revenue from wholesale power sales. Shares closed Friday at $25.87 and were inactive premarket. The stock is down 7.5% in the past year, including 2.3% this month. -By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2481; Tess.Stynes@dowjones.com